The City of Castlegar has received the results from the air market analysis it initiated in November 2015, but the results will not be released to the public.
The study was designed to analyze how people use the West Kootenay Regional Airport (WKRA) and other airports to travel to and from the region. It included surveying regional businesses with an on-line survey that went out to businesses within an area that spanned from Midway to Creston and from Nakusp to Rossland.
The survey asked businesses questions such as their number of employees, number annual trips from their office, which regional airports they use for air trips, and if services to WKRA were improved how many more flights per year would they book or how many road trips would they change to air trips.
The information was never intended to be released to the public and Castlegar CAO John Malcom explained why, "The purpose was to estimate the growth potential in the West Kootenay region in terms of air traffic," he said. "As part of our confidential marketing, we are keeping it internal." In other words, the information will be kept from the public in order to keep competitors from accessing the information.
"[The information] will be used to encourage airlines to increase service into the West Kootenay region," explained Malcom. "It was information that airlines who might be interested in expanding or increasing their presence into the West Kootenay would be interested in."